Let There Be Ducks!

Apr
23

Look what I picked up at the little store in town yesterday! Ducklings! I got six white Pekins and six Khaki Campbells.
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It’s been a long time since I tried ducks. I love ducks, but at Stringtown Rising Farm, they kept running off to the river. Over and over. Here, there’s no river nearby for them to run off to, but plenty of creeks winding all around the farm, so I’m hoping they will be content to stay home.

Khaki Campbell duckling, center, beak showing to the camera.
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Pekin duckling.
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For now, I’ve got them in the tub with the straight run chicks I got last week. It’s a bit crowded.
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Later today, I’ll be moving them to a bigger tub, and probably putting that in the cellar. I can keep the heater on in there to keep them warm and get the mess out of the house.
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My house looks like spring, doesn’t it? Seedlings and plants and chicks and ducks!
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Precious is excited!

I’ve got some tomato plants that I bought, to get started on some earlier tomatoes, along with herbs–sage, chives, rosemary, basil, parsley, and some lavender.
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I’ve got more tomatoes and some peppers that I’m trying to get germinated for planting later, back in the studio garden. The weather isn’t cooperating, for chicks and ducklings or plants either. It’s supposed to get down to around the frost point tonight, so no putting plants out today. Are you planting where you are? If so, I’m jealous!





Comments

  1. bumblebee says:

    WOW! It was just snowing here like crazy! Little Styrofoam balls, and it’s only 34 degrees! Brrr….
    Your house looks so cool with all the plants and babies! Ducks are adorable…. Looking forward to hearing about them in the future.
    LOVE you posts!!! Thanks for them! Makes me feel like I am there too. 🙂

  2. cabynfevr says:

    No planting in CT! We are in a stretch of below normal temps with snow north of us. If I get to plant by Memorial Day I will be surprised 🙁

  3. LauraP says:

    Herbs! You could buy herbs! Our local greenhouses don’t have them yet, and I’m eager to get a new rosemary bush started. The cattle destroyed my big, 5-year-old bush that lived in the hoophouse. Yes, the cattle shoved down a woven wire fence, then shoved through the greenhouse door to snack upon all my winter greens and herbs.

  4. Joell says:

    :happyflower:
    Oh my, such cute duckies, along with precious and the chicks, I would never get anything done. I hope the ducks keep to home this time.
    You will have a lovely garden, do you by chance have rhubarb on your farm? I dearly love it and cant seem to grow it in our soil, my Grandnother always had a wonderful bed full. I purchased some today at the supermarket for a nice pie this weekend. Yummy!

  5. Granma2girls says:

    No chance of planting anything till probably the May 24 weekend, if that. We live about 3 blocks from the beautiful Niagara River. Actually, you can walk out to where Lake Erie flows into the Niagara. There is a chain of drums, like empty oil drums, stretching across the lake from the Buffalo NY shoreline to Canada. It’s called an ice boom, and it’s to keep the frozen chunks od ice from jamming up the Niagara Falls. The ice boom is finally removed when a certain amount of square miles of lake water has melted. Last year it was very late, so we had a very cool spring. And they’re calling for it to be late again. Most springs it’s out by April 10,or so. This year maybe, May 7. It also means we’ll be having a cooler, but more comfortable, summer like 70’s and a few 80’s.

  6. beforethedawn says:

    Cute lil chicks and duckies. We can’t wait to raise our own someday, hopefully soon. We’re itching to move out of state ASAP.

    We’re having a rare overcast/chilly spell in SoCal, so no planting today. But maybe tomorrow ;). I need to get seed starting mix first.

  7. holstein woman says:

    In Oregon I have beets up but haven’t planted much else. I did put in some cucumbers and radishes and plan to add corn and beans when this rain ends next week. We have had the mild winter this year, but we are still having nights to 39 so being careful about what we plant.

  8. ClaudiaL says:

    I have my original two chickens…they are about three/four years old. Then a few weeks ago I bought the remaining four chickens at our local co-op. I wanted more, but now I think I am glad I only got the four, next year I can go through this again, but I probably will be better prepared. Tomorrow…I am getting four, 4 day old goslings. Eek! I don’t know what I am doing yet! I have read everything I can about them and I will pick up a kiddy pool for them, but I read too that for the first few weeks I should be with them while they are swimming anyway, so they can go in the bathtub. Hey! It’s ok. I live in a converted barn!

  9. whtelephant says:

    I’m actually behind on planting here in Florida. :sun: Just put in 10 more tomatoes last weekend, already have had 15 in for a couple weeks that look like they should fruit soon. Cucumbers and summer squash are sprouted, but really should have been planted a month ago. Okra and eggplant starts put in 2 weeks ago. Peppers will stay in pots through the summer, seeds started inside in Jan., first blossoms already showing up. Greenhouse potato towers almost ready to harvest, outside ones have compressed much more than I thought they would, but already have 1ft sprouts out of one of them. winter crop of onions and garlic almost ready to harvest, carrots still need to beef up a little before I pull them (I was too late to start a spring crop of them, so this is all the carrots I will have this year). This is why we moved to Florida 🙂 2 full growing seasons, plus extra time with the greenhouse. Our guava tree is flowering this spring, hopefully some fruit will show up later. Only a couple of flowers on the pomegranate, so likely no fruit this year, but maybe next. I love the growing season.

  10. GA_in_GA says:

    Your ducklings and chicks are so cute! I started 21 eggs in the incubator on Sunday. So I’ll be overwhelmed by cuteness in about 3 weeks. I am actually hatching for one of my neighbors, as he wanted chicks and I love hatching them. I won’t be keeping any chicks this year, or at least that is my plan for now.

    We have green beans in the garden that we’ll probably have our first small harvest from this weekend. And I spotted a jalapeño pepper ready to pick this afternoon. Eggplants are already forming. The blueberry bushes are loaded this year and I am looking forward to afternoon snacks straight from the bush. Potatoes still growing – but DH planted them late this year.

  11. Leah says:

    Crossing my fingers the ducks will stay…..I remember last ones that flew off!

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